For this chapter, I've put pokémon speech in italics and human speech in regular text, so that you can tell the difference (since Kit understands pokémon speech, both are written in English). I'm not sure if this makes it less confusing or more confusing - so if you could tell me what you think that'd be great, and I'll decide whether to do it this way permanently or not. I'm probably making it into more of a deal than it really is - all you really need to remember is that Leon speaks in human speech but all the other pokémon speak in pokémon speech, but I'm just paranoid that I don't make it clear enough. *Shrugs.*

Chapter Nine - The Capture



Cam leapt at Leon, arms outstretched, and knocked the charmeleon flat on his face. He swiped at him repeatedly with his claws, cutting through the hard scales and drawing blood.

All I could do was stand there as I shook my head in horror, tears in my eyes. This wasn't Cam . . . this couldn't be Cam! How could he ever be so vicious, so violent? How could Cam, the one who had saved me, the one who had always defended me, suddenly become a snarling, furious fighting machine?

'Leon!' Adrian exclaimed, looking just as horrified as he watched his teammate cry out in pain, unable to defend himself against the raging kecleon. He turned to Rose. 'You've gotta help him!'

'Help Leon?' Rose asked, almost laughing. 'As if he'd ever return the favour!'

'It doesn't matter!' Adrian exclaimed. 'We can't let him get hurt like this! Come on, Rose! With Poochyena fainted, Numel's our only chance!'

Rose sighed, irritated, and looked down at her nonchalant pokémon. He yawned, rubbed his eyes with a stubby paw, and stared blankly ahead, oblivious to the fight that was going on in front of him.

'Numel!' Rose yelled. Startled, her pokémon looked up, darting his head around in confusion. 'Numel, get up!'

'But why?' Numel moaned, but did as he was told, getting to his feet.

'I'm warning you . . .' said the park ranger. 'If you start another fight, Poliwrath will knock that numel out in one hit, and you know it. We don't want people like you in this park, so take your charmeleon and go!'

Leon narrowed his eyes, snarling. 'I'm not their pokémon! I am owned by no one!'

With that, he kicked Cam off him and pulled himself to his feet. But by the time he had stood up, Cam was charging back at him, and simply knocked him down again.

'You'll pay!' he growled at Leon, swiping his claws at him. 'You'll pay for hurting my friend!'

'Cam, stop!' I cried. 'You don't have to defend me like this, please just stop! You'll get hurt!'

'Kit, what on Earth are you talking about!?' Kimi exclaimed.

'She thinks the kecleon's fighting to defend her!' one of the boys said, and his friends roared with laughter.

I narrowed my eyes. Now wasn't the time to worry about what they thought. Cam had to stop fighting, he had to avoid being hurt, he had to . . . he had to return to normal. I bit my lip. Cam . . . what's happened to you?

'Numel!' Rose yelled. 'Knock that stupid kecleon out! If it's changed to a fire-type you should have no problem! Use Dig!'

'But that move is so tricky,' whined Numel.

'Numel, come on, please,' begged Adrian. 'You don't want to see Leon get hurt, do you?'

Numel glanced over at where Cam was still swiping at Leon. He blinked a few times, then shrugged.

'Numel!' Rose yelled. 'I gave you an order, now do it! Unless you want to take another swim in the pool!'

Numel opened his eyes wide in shock, and shook his head rapidly.

'I'll do it, I'll do it!' he cried, and obediently began digging his way underground.

'That's it!' the ranger yelled. 'I told you what would happen! Poliwrath, Water Gun!'

His pokémon shot a burst of water from the spiral on its stomach, but by this time, Numel had managed to burrow underground, and evaded the attack. However, some of the water hit Cam, and he cried out in pain.

'Cam!' I exclaimed, watching in horror as Leon took the opportunity to flip Cam onto his back. He was just about to swipe at him when Numel suddenly burst up from underneath the two lizards and sent them both flying. They landed several metres away from each other, covered in dirt, fainted.

'Cam!' I cried, and ran over to my friend. I got down on my knees and pulled him into my arms. 'Cam! Cam, say something!'

His body was motionless. I stared down at him, feeling tears run down my face. Cam, please, please be all right . . . if anything happens to you . . . if you don't recover or if you do but you're not yourself anymore . . . it'll be all my fault . . . I'll never be able to forgive myself. I've let you down, Cam . . . I've let Ho-Oh down and I've let you down . . . I'm no good to anyone . . ..

'Say goodbye to your little friend!'

I had barely registered the voice when I felt a small bump as something flew at Cam and hit him in the side. Before I knew it, he was disappearing before my eyes, dematerialising into a faint red light . . . and then he was gone. I stared at the empty space in my arms before turning to see Rose bend down and pick up a pokéball.

'Pretty good catch, don't you think?' she grinned mockingly. 'Kecleons are an endangered species, this one'll fetch an excellent price.'

No.

I stared at her in horror. No! She . . . she had captured Cam!? I shook my head. How could she . . . how could she . . . he wasn't just any wild pokémon, he was my friend! She couldn't capture him, no one could capture him, they couldn't! Not Cam!

'Give him back!' I yelled, getting to my feet. 'Let him go!'

Rose laughed. 'Sure, I'll let him go.' She held the pokéball out towards me. I glared at her, unconvinced. She smiled as she pulled the pokéball back. 'We'll let your friend go if you agree to come with us.'

'Yeah right, like I'm gonna fall for that!' I narrowed my eyes at her.

'I mean it,' said Rose. 'Sure, a kecleon can fetch a good price, but that's nothing compared to what we'll get for bringing you back to our boss.'

'I'm not that stupid,' I said defiantly. 'You'll never take me.'

'You'd give up you friend to save yourself?' Adrian asked, shaking his head. 'Some friend you are.'

I took a step back in shock. Was that what I was doing? By refusing to give myself up to them, was I just being selfish? But . . . but that couldn't be it! What they'd do to Cam would be nothing compared to what they'd do to me. They would sell Cam, but me . . . they'd conduct experiments on me, they'd be so cruel to me, they'd make me into some kind of freak show . . ..

But if I were a real friend, would that have mattered? If I were a real friend, wouldn't I put myself through anything to save Cam? Wouldn't I?

'Well, tough luck,' said Rose, holding out Numel's pokéball and recalling him. She put both full pokéballs on her belt.

'Catching pokémon in the National Park is illegal,' the ranger said warningly. 'All the pokémon here are protected and catching them can result in big fines and even prison sentences! Release that kecleon before I call the police!'

'I told you the deal,' said Rose. She gestured to me. 'The girl comes with us, I release the kecleon.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' said the ranger. 'She's of no value to you.'

'If that's what you want to believe, then go ahead,' said Rose. 'C'mon vulpix girl, this is your last chance. Are you coming or not?'

I swallowed. I could say yes and hope that the ranger would call the police and get them to release me. But I didn't know if even the police could combat a gang like Team Magma and besides, I had no idea if they really would release Cam. But if I just stood here and did nothing . . . I'd let him down again. I was always letting Cam down. And this time . . . what if this time, I never saw him again?

'Time's up, we're outta here,' said Rose. I looked up at her hurriedly, still wondering whether to just give in to her, when I became aware of a buzzing sound overhead. The sound became louder and louder until the plants around us began to shake violently as a harsh wind blew through. A few seconds later, a helicopter appeared in the sky above. A thin rope ladder was thrown down in between the two Magma agents. Adrian bent over and picked up Leon, hauling the unconscious charmeleon into his arms, then took a hold on the ladder.

'Say goodbye to your friend,' grinned Rose, as she too grabbed onto the ladder.

'Wait!' I exclaimed, as the ladder swung and rose into the air, the helicopter turning around. 'Wait, give him back! Please! Give him back!'

'Too late, little girl!' I could hardly hear Rose's voice over the whirring helicopter. 'Now you'll never see your friend again!'

A few seconds later, the helicopter had disappeared from my vision. I stared after it for a few seconds before the energy vanished from my body, and I collapsed onto the ground. I've failed. I've failed as a friend. I've failed as a human.



The activities were called off that night. Due to the presence of Team Magma in the National Park, our camp was to be cut short and we were to return home the following morning. I had wanted to yell at the camp instructors, to tell them that staying for the night was stupid and that we should go home now . . . and more importantly, that I'd seen Team Magma earlier but they'd done nothing about it, they'd left it too late, left it until my friend had had to suffer . . . I had wanted to tell them all that and more, but I hadn't. I'd known that taking out my anger wouldn't make me feel better, because it wasn't their fault, it was mine.

I glanced around in the darkness at the shapes that were Amanda, Kimi and Natasha. They were fast asleep. How could they be so calm, so peaceful? How could they just lie there and sleep while Cam was out there in the hands of some evil gang, in the middle of nowhere, with no one he knew, no familiar faces . . . not even familiar with himself, but that ferocious creature that he had turned into. How could they sleep?

It was simple . . . they didn't know Cam. They didn't care about Cam, to them he was just a wild pokémon, just an unknown creature . . . and because they didn't know him, because they didn't understand, they didn't see him as a person. Whether he was human or not made no difference. Because they didn't know him, he wasn't a person. He didn't matter.

But he mattered to me. And in this unfamiliar park, maybe I was to only one he mattered to. So I was the only one who could do anything about it. I didn't know if Cam was even still in the park, but lying there doing nothing wasn't going to help me find out.

I crawled out of the tent into the cold night. I didn't bother to take anything with me, not even a torch. Maybe it was because I'd been awake for hours in the darkness so my eyes had adjusted, but navigating at night didn't seem like a big problem anymore. Without even registering what I was doing, I went straight over to the rangers' cabin and peered in the kitchen window.

'Tom!' I hissed quietly. 'Tom, are you there?'

I wasn't sure why I was seeking out the rangers' meowth for help. Perhaps it was because he had helped me with Cam before. But I felt that I needed help, and that Tom was the only one who could give it to me.

'Tom!' I repeated desperately. 'Tom!'

'Now it's not every day a human comes looking for me in the middle of the night.'

Startled, I turned around to see the meowth plodding up the stairs to the cabin and approaching me. I smiled, and turned away from the window, bending down to Tom.

'Now tell me how you know my name and why you're looking for me,' he said. 'If you're up to no good let me know so I can join in.'

'I'm not up to no good, I need your help,' I said.

'Now, there's something I've never seen before,' said Tom. 'A human who understands my words.'

'Well it's not every day I find a pokémon who understands mine either,' I said.

'When you've been around humans as long as I have, you pick these things up,' said Tom. 'Now, are you going to tell me who you are?'

I bit my lip. Explaining that I was that vulpix he had helped out would be too difficult, and I couldn't waste any time trying to make him believe me.

'Do you remember that vulpix you helped out?' I asked. 'You gave her some medicine.'

'Of course,' said Tom. 'Kit.'

'Well, I'm a friend of her,' I said. 'My name's . . . um . . ..' I decided to just go with my full name rather than making one up, in case I forgot it. 'Katherine.'

'I see,' said Tom. 'And what did you need my help for, Katherine?'

'Well, it's my- um, our friend,' I said. 'I- I mean, Kit managed to heal him, but then he got . . ..' I took a deep breath. It was hard enough to think about, let alone talk about. 'He got captured by these Team Magma agents, and I need to find him. I have to leave tomorrow morning, but I can't leave without him, I can't!'

'And are these "Team Magma agents" still here?' Tom asked.

'I don't know,' I said. 'That's where I was hoping you'd help. You must know this park better than anyone, right?'

'You want me to help search the park?' Tom asked.

'Do you think you could?' I begged. 'I know this place is big, but if we split up-'

'Don't be so absurd, one meowth and one human could never search the entire park before morning,' said Tom.

'Please!' I begged. 'We've got to at least try! I can't leave him here, I-'

'Let me finish,' Tom cut in. 'One meowth and one human couldn't search this park, but a few murkrows could easily.'

'You . . . you know some murkrows who can help me!?' I exclaimed.

'Of course,' nodded Tom. 'I know a lot of meowths don't get along with bird pokémon, but they're such friendly creatures if you only get to know them.'

'That's so great!' I smiled.

Tom nodded. 'I'll see what I can do.'



Tom found a family of five murkrows to help us. While they flew around the park looking for some sign of Team Magma, Tom and I split up to search on ground level. We'd only been looking for around twenty minutes when one of the murkrows flew to me, carrying Tom in his claws. He told me that he'd found two humans and a charmeleon sleeping in a small clearing. That was them! The murkrow led Tom and me to the clearing as fast as we could run.

Sure enough, two figures lay in sleeping bags, with a charmeleon beside them. All three were fast asleep. I looked around frantically for some sign of Cam, and spotted a pile of about eight pokéballs. One of them must have been the one Cam had been caught in . . . but which one? There was only one way to find out. I stepped into the clearing.

'Katherine!' Tom hissed, and I turned to face him. 'Not so fast, you might wake them! And look.' He gestured to where another figure who I hadn't noticed was sitting near the pokéballs. A small creature with a rounded body, four stumpy legs and a long neck . . . Numel. His eyes were drooping, but he was awake. I hesitated.

'He must be on guard duty,' said Tom. 'If he sees us he might wake the humans up.'

'I dunno . . .' I said uncertainly, thinking about what I'd seen of Numel so far. 'I think we might be able to talk our way around with this one.'

'Are you sure?' Tom asked.

'No, but I think it's worth a try,' I said. 'He's not exactly the brightest pokémon in the world. We might be able to trick him.'

'Well . . . all right, but we have to be careful,' said Tom. 'I know a few attacks but I don't think I'd stand a chance against that charmeleon.'

'The charmeleon was in a pretty big battle today, he must be weak anyway,' I said. 'But it doesn't matter, we've got to get Cam back.'

Tom nodded. 'All right. Let's try talking to the pokémon, but we must be quiet.'

We carefully snuck past Adrian, Rose and Leon . . . as I glanced at Leon I couldn't help noticing that he looked a lot healthier than I'd expected . . . but it didn't matter, because I was sure that we could get through this without having to get into a fight. We approached Numel, and he didn't even stir as I crouched down in front of him.

'Hey,' I whispered, and Numel blinked, shook his head, and looked at me.

'Wh . . . who's that?' he asked.

'I'm a Team Magma agent from a different division, I've come to collect the kecleon you caught,' I said, and felt my heartbeat racing . . . this had to work, it had to . . ..

Numel paused. 'Rose never said anything about someone coming to collect anything . . ..'

'Yeah, I just got the order then, but it's urgent, the boss really needs that kecleon,' I said.

'I think I should ask Rose about it . . .' said Numel uncertainly, and went to get up.

'No!' I hissed, and he turned to me, shocked. 'No, really, it's OK . . . she'll get mad if you wake her up, you don't want that.'

'No,' Numel shook his head. 'I don't.'

'Exactly,' I said. 'So come on, just give me the kecleon, and we'll get going.'

'OK,' said Numel, and turned to the pile of pokéballs. He looked at them for a moment, then turned back to me. 'Wait . . . what's a kecleon?'

I blinked at him. 'You don't know what a kecleon is?'

'I'm not good at remembering names,' sighed Numel. 'I know what's in each ball but I don't know the names of them.'

'Oh,' I said. 'Um . . . it's like . . . a green lizard, with a red bit around its belly.'

'Oh!' Numel exclaimed, and nodded enthusiastically. 'I know!'

He opened his mouth and picked up one of the pokéballs in it, then brought it over to me. I held out my hand, and he dropped it into my palm. I grinned. That had been even easier than I'd thought!

'There you go!' he said happily, as if pleased to have been of help.

'Thanks,' I nodded. 'I'll uh, I'll tell the boss how co-operative you were and maybe he'll give you a bonus.'

'Really!?' he exclaimed.

'Yeah,' I nodded. 'Well uh, see ya.'

'Bye!' smiled Numel. I gestured to Tom, and we headed away.

'Wow,' said Tom once we were out of the clearing. 'You handled that really well. I'm quite amazed!'

'It wasn't so much me handling it well as Numel being a bit dense,' I smiled. I looked at the pokéball in my hand. 'It's so great to have you back, Cam. Come on, let's get you out of there.'

I pushed the button on the pokéball and it grew to its larger size. I opened it, and there was a flash of light as the pokémon inside materialised. I smiled as it began to form shape . . . and then my expression dropped.

The pokémon that appeared was a tall green lizard which stood on long hind legs. He had two long, thin arms with leaves attached to his wrists, a long neck with another leaf extending off the back of his head, and two leaves for tail feathers. He narrowed his fierce yellow eyes and snarled at me, then opened his long jaws and let out a sharp cry. I took a step back in shock.

'That's not Cam!' I exclaimed.

'That's a grovyle!' Tom cried. 'Watch out Katherine, they can be fierce!'

He extended his claws and barred his teeth at the lizard, but the grovyle ignored him and swiped at me. I managed to dodge his attack, but then I was distracted as I heard voices and movement behind me. The grovyle swiped again and this time he knocked me to the ground. I landed with a thump and cringed in pain, but I didn't have a lot of time to think about it because suddenly, two humans and two pokémon were standing in front of me . . . Adrian, Rose, Leon and Numel.

'So you've come looking for your little friend,' smiled Rose. 'Well you can be assured that you'll be together now, because all you've managed to do is get yourself trapped too.'